Euclids Fifth » wordpress

WordPress Admin Tools I Love

Kyle Smith — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:57:45 +0000

I love WordPress plugins. Not only for the website, but for the admin side of WordPress as well. There are several plugins out there that can improve the quality of the admin side, here are 6 of them that I use.

1. Fluency

I like the default admin screen, I think WordPress has done a great job in creating a friendly, pleasing UI. However, change is always good, that’s where Fluency comes in. It streamlines the admin navigation, turning the dropdown navigation into a flyout menu system. It might seem small, but I like the reduced vertical height of the flyout menus. Fluency also modifies the main panel of the admin screen: to me, it feels more streamlined, as if the fluff was removed and made modern, and the font change, albeit scarey at first, is rather nice once you settle in.

2. Post Ideas +

Based off of a deprecated plugin, Post Idea, Post Idea + moves the old plugin into the modern era, just by making it compatible with the newest versions of WordPress. What it does is pretty simple, it keeps a list of all the post ideas you have, and puts that list on the dashboard — simple. Somehow, I find myself coming up with post ideas at the most inopportune time. Times when I do not have an hour or so to craft a well thought out post. With Post Ideas +, I can jot down the post topic and then when I have time, come back to it and create the full post.

3. Google Analyiticator

A lot of themes are including this plugin by default now since its so popular, but just in case you don’t have it, go get it immediately. The ability to examine the traffic to your website at such granular levels might sound overwhelming, but once you get a handle on the interface, it’s quite exciting to see who is coming to your site and where they are coming from. I have enjoyed the upgrades that the plugin has made, like, adding the ability to track outgoing links. They have also added a dashboard feature so you no longer have to login to google.com to retrieve some basic data. Excellent plugin.

4. Database Size Plugin

This might not apply for everyone, but I was previously on a host where there was a database size limit. This simple plugin displays the total MB count of your database at the top of the admin page.

5. Custom Admin Branding

If you are building a WordPress blog/site for a customer, or yourself for that matter, and want to add a bit of personalization, this plugin is great. Custom Admin Branding allows you to simply change the login and header images on the admin side to anything you want. Customer brands, developer brands, blank for that matter. Simple and effective.

6.Cincopa

One of many many WordPress photo gallery plugins. At this point, I’m not sure that there is a superior plugin for photo galleries, but rather a plugin that does what YOU want. And for me, this plugin does what I want. Multiple layout options and configurations, based on a simple UI.

Custom Field Hacks For WordPress

Kyle Smith — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 04:55:54 +0000

Custom fields are a great little thing. They allow you to easily customize your blog with only a little bit of code. Below is a succinct explanation on how to do it, courtesy wprecipes.com

Open your single.php file (You can also modify your index.php file) and paste the following code anywhere within the loop:
$customField = get_post_custom_values("mood");
if (isset($customField[0])) {
echo "Mood: ".$customField[0];
Save the file. Now when you’ll write a new post, just create a custom field named mood and type your current mood as a value.

WordPress Popularity

Kyle Smith — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:26:53 +0000

I recently read an article over on writerspace.net, entitled WordPress.com Nearing Popularity Landmark The article speaks to a simple numbers game relative to wordpress’ popularity on the web. Fascinating enough, it is predicted that wordpress will top 10 million blogs by the end of the year.

As a developer, I would just like to add a few more reasons why wordpress is the dominating force in the blogosphere.

Pings and track backs

From wikipedia:

Track backs are used primarily to facilitate communication between blogs; if a blogger writes a new entry commenting on, or referring to, an entry found at another blog, and both blogging tools support the TrackBack protocol, then the commenting blogger can notify the other blog with a “TrackBack ping“; the receiving blog will typically display summaries of, and links to, all the commenting entries below the original entry. This allows for conversations spanning several blogs that readers can easily follow.

Compared to other blogging software out there, wordpress is the superior product to handle ping and trackbacks. Superior to expression engine, blogger and movable type. Why are ping and track backs so important? Exposure. the TrackBack protocol, as simple as it is, helps to give your article the depth and breath that it would not normally see if it were up to you or your community to forward on your blog topic.

Development Community

With wordpress leading the charge in the blogosphere as the number one platform to publish blogs, the development community has come with them. Need a plugin to manage your ads? Need a plugin to increase your SEO? Need a plugin to create sitemaps? All those are accomplished with a few clicks and a download. With such a large userbase and supporting development community, chances are that someone out there has had the same need as you and there is a solution available.

All this is not to say that the alternative platforms are not wonderful engines to create your blog, not by any means. However, if asked, I personally would reccomend using wordpress.